Posts made in June, 2015

In the Arapaho culture, lying was considered worse than murder and a liar was a scourge on society, often kicked out of the band. However, in this story, the Arapaho word for trickery is the same as cleverness. And who can blame our trickster, Nih’oo3oo for his reaction? Here is a story from 1899 that is as close to it’s original content as the modern day interpreters, Cowell, Moss, and C’Hair, could get it. As you could expect, some words just don’t translate fully into English. Note: Nih’oo3oo is pronounced Nee-aw-thaw and translates to Spider. Nih’oo3oo Pursued by the Rolling Skull By Philip Rabid, Southern Arapaho, 1899 (Slow) Nih’oo3oo was fishing. There was a hole in the ice, where he was fishing. When he was still fishing, the ice could be heard cracking apart at various spots. Every once in a while you could hear the ice cracking again. “I wonder what that is,” he thought to himself. He looked over there where the sound was coming from. He could not see anything on top of the ice. (Fast) Suddenly, where the hole in the ice was, a skull rose into view above the water! Nih’oo3oo was almost scared to death. He just ran way as fast as he could go. “I will kill you!” the skull said to him. All of a sudden, it was coming after him no matter where he went. He just fled from it on this side and that, over hill and dale, among trees and in the sand. Still, inevitably, it was following him everywhere he went. “I wish there was a sandy patch,” said Nih’oo3oo. And sure enough, there was a sandy patch. (Slow) This skull was barely moving forward now. After quite a while, the skull rolled through the sandy spot. (Fast) “I wish there was a thick brush with lots of branches,” said Nih’oo3oo. Then there was a thick, many-branched brush. (Slow) This skull got stuck there. It was trying to roll through the brush. And now Nih’oo3oo had run really hard and gotten far away, until this skull rolled around the edge of the brushy area. (Fast) After it managed to get through there, then it started pursuing Nih’oo3oo again. Once again, it had almost caught up to him. “I wish there was a hill,” he said. And once again, there was a hill. (Slow) This skull was getting tired from rolling uphill. It was rolling uphill. Halfway up, it rolled back down again. Once again now, Nih’oo3oo had run very hard and gotten far away. The skull rolled back down the hill three times. On the fourth time, it just barely made it over the top. (Fast) Once it...